Including students’ use of technology in the classroom can help educators cater for some students’ SEN. In their work Using Animation as a Means of Enhancing Learning of Individuals with Special Needs (2018), Baglama, Yucesoy and Yikmis state that the use of tech “facilitates learning,” (p.3) and help students develop various skills. In this lesson plan, how technology use can facilitate learning for students with SEN and what skills all students will be developing have been contemplated when choosing the tools. Activities targeted at using technology were also planned with the purpose of fostering an inclusive classroom environment among all students. 

• For students with motor skills difficulties, not having to complete the final assignment on paper can be highly beneficial. By working with a digital device on the environment slogan presentation, they can make sure their work is legible, and work faster as well, which may help them gain confidence.

• Taking into consideration students with writing difficulties, varying the way they present their slogan and the environmental issue facilitates the task for them. Each pair can choose which format is the best fit for them. Visual learners can choose to present the information with pictures and record their voices explaining what each slide shows. They may include written text and rely on the tool to spot mistakes and help them organise their ideas. Moreover, typing instead of writing by hand is a kinaesthetic way of remembering common letter patterns (Delaney, 2016). For that reason, this tool can also benefit students who struggle with spelling.

• A task that entails the collaborative use of technology can attract inattentive students or students with ADHD. It can be more motivating to students since they are allowed to work freely with Powtoon, customise the presentation to their liking, and work with a peer to divide the work. Working collaboratively, self-monitoring the time they spent on each part of the assignment and self-evaluating their progress are some skills students may develop by completing this task. It also provides SEN students with the opportunity to self-monitor their learning experiences, gain autonomy and learn how to deal with emotional outbursts and high levels of stress in a safe environment. 

The European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) elaborates on the set of digital competences that educators at all levels of education should acquire to be up-to-date professionals and adapt to the rapid technological changes that are happening in the world these days. This framework  was created by the European Commission, and it is  aimed at explaining “how digital technologies can be used to enhance and innovate education and training” (DigCompEdu, n.d.).

1. Areas and competencies covered

Within the areas suggested in the European framework, the choice of technology and the planned tasks for this lesson plan facilitate some of the activities of an educator’s job.

1st Area: Professional engagement. The competence developed by educators while teaching this lesson plan is that one related to reflective practice. The teacher is given the opportunity to reflect on their digital pedagogical practice as they incorporate the use of digital and online tools into the inclusive classroom. Self-assessment is possible for the teacher as they use technology to create the task sheet used in class, decide on a website for students to explore and select a tool all students can benefit from.

2nd Area: Digital resources. The competences teachers might develop are two. Firstly, teachers may work on their ability to select digital resources. It is key for educators catering for an inclusive classroom to select digital resources taking into consideration lesson objectives for all students and for SEN students, time allotted to each task that includes the use of these resources and the context in which the lesson plan is taught. In this plan, special needs of students were considered to make tasks achievable while challenging. Learners with motor skills difficulties, ADHA and a lack of emotional maturation can benefit from working on a visual presentation instead of a written assignment, as well as with a task sheet that can help them reflect on environmental issues and their civil responsibility. The second competence is managing, protecting and sharing digital resources, which entails educating students on open licences, copyright rules and open educational resources. The teacher will also have to manage how they present the digital resources to facilitate their use to learners. As they organise information to teach students how to use the NatGeo website and Powtoon, teachers will also learn about copyright rules and how to use open educational resources.

3rd Area: Teaching and learning. Teaching as a competence to be developed, in this lesson plan, can be mastered given that the teacher implements the use of digital technology so that it is part of the learners’ learning process: students learn lexis related to the environment by reading online about various issues. They get to communicate with what they learnt creating a Powtoon presentation using a device. Guidance is key, and so in this lesson plan, fifteen minutes of the lesson are targeted at students exploring the tool together with the teacher and on their own with the teacher’s assistance. This lesson plan also helps enhance collaborative learning among students. As they have to work in pairs, they will need to communicate effectively and debate to reach agreements on how to complete the task in order to construct knowledge in a collaborative way. Powtoon allows only one account working on the video at a time, so both students will have to organise themselves to use the time they’ve got efficiently and ensure the two of them contribute to the making of the presentation in a well-organised manner. This lesson plan also caters for students’ self-regulated learning. Pair work entails the distribution of tasks, which means that both students will need to play an active role in the planning and monitoring of their own learning process to be able to contribute to the completion of the task. They will be driven to identify each other’s strengths to make the best out of them. The focus of the lesson consequently changes from the teacher to the student, which contributes to making the lesson a more student-centred one.

4th Area: Assessment. The development of the competence related to feedback and planning is a competence most likely to be enlarged when teaching this lesson plan. The teacher will be able to provide feedback and guidance to students based on their final product and how they work throughout the lesson with technology. The result of all students using technology in a classroom targeted at fostering diversity will be useful when planning future lessons. 

5th Area: Empowering learners. In this lesson plan working towards including technology in a diverse classroom, ensuring accessibility and inclusion is key. Tasks were organised so that each pair has a device to work with – if they don’t have cell phones or computers of their own in the classroom, they will move to the computer lab of the school. The task sheet in Canva can be printed together with some articles from the NatGeo website. Also, students with SEN who struggle with assignments done on paper due to their writing difficulties will benefit from working with computers. Students with speech difficulties might also benefit from the task, as they needn't add their voice to the video if they don’t want to; the Powtoon can have exclusively visual content. In case they want to add their voice to the presentation, they can record it as many times as they want before deciding on one recording to use, or rely on a classmate to record only their voice. Allowing each pair to work according to their special needs and strengths as well as at their own pace is a way of differentiating and personalising instruction, which entails another key competence to have as digital-competent teachers, according to the European framework. By including activities that involve the use of digital technology in the lesson plan, the teacher can also actively engage learners in the lesson. As they read about environmental issues and reflect on a slogan to be the start of their presentation, learners make use of different skills like their creativity, critical thinking, citizenship and responsibility towards the environment. 

6th Area: Facilitating learners’ digital competence. This area involves a number of competences. To begin with, all learners are encouraged to develop their information and media literacy by working autonomously with a computer with access to the Internet. Though the teacher will be monitoring as they work, how students organise, interpret and analyse the information they encounter while reading in the NatGeo website and while creating their video presentation with Powtoon is up to students. They will be challenged to evaluate the credibility of the information they find online, which will hopefully help them become critical consumers of media. Helping students work towards a responsible use of digital technologies is another competence developed by the teacher, since it will be up to them to ensure students’ physical and psychological well-being. The teacher will also enable students to develop digital problem solving. They will learn how to work on an online task sheet, retrieve information from an authentic website, use Powtoon and solve any technical problem that may arise. They may also transfer the knowledge they’ve got of other technological tools as they try to adapt to this new one. This process can contribute to learners becoming skillful digital creators of content. With the teacher as a facilitator of knowledge, students will learn how copyright and licence apply to digital content, how to reference their sources (if any) and how to effectively express themselves through digital means. 

2. Proficiency level: Tasks 

Among the four levels suggested on this framework, which are

• Foundation

• Intermediate

• Advanced

• Highly specialised,

in terms of the complexity of the task, the creation of a video presentation can be said to be of an Intermediate level, as it presents a well-defined and non routine problem: reflecting on an environmental issue and coming up with a slogan to help raise awareness on the importance of taking action towards finding a solution to this issue. Regarding students’ autonomy, the task is of an Foundation level, as students work in pairs autonomously as well as with the teacher’s guidance when needed. However, the aim is for students to slowly start working independently and according to their needs; the teacher mediates in each pair until students are self-sufficient and confident to rely on each other’s strengths to complete the task. Then, the task would be at an Intermediate level. About the cognitive domain, the task is of an Intermediate level at  first, as students have to understand how each tool – the NatGeo website, the Canva task sheet and Powtoon - works and how to complete all the tasks. It will later on move to an Advanced level, where students will have to apply what they’ve learnt in the completion of their final product.

3. Citizens competencies: Students

Competencies to be develop by learners when using this lesson plans are:

• Information and data literacy

• Communication and collaboration

• Digital content creation

• Safety

• Problem solving

The PLANIED framework expands on Argentina's National guidelines for promoting ICT skills within schools. This proposal by the Ministerio de Deportes y Educacion de la Nación aims at achieving the integration of the educational community to the digital world. It complies with the Argentinian Education Law Nº26.206 in that students should be guided towards the development of digital literacy and the competencies needed to manage the latest languages within the realm of ICTs. PLANIED establishes, thus, a schema on how to prepare students for stepping into the digital world as critical users of media and reap its various benefits.

Competences

1. Creativity and innovation → Students develop these competencies by becoming creators of media in the use and appropriation of tools like Powtoon. They are expected to make a creative and clever presentation around an awareness-raising topic like a current environmental issue that requires attention and immediate action.

2. Communication and collaboration → While working collaboratively throughout the lesson, students build knowledge together. Moreover, they begin to understand the importance in communicating using media, for it helps engender understanding of issues as urgent as the ones regarding the environment without distance as a barrier.

3. Information and representation → While making the slogan and the video presentation in Powtoon, students learn, organise and come up with new ways of conveying meaning.

4. Effective and responsible participation → Students become critical users of media and active members of the digital community, which requires them to be respectful towards others, understand their civic responsibility as members of this community, act ethically and comply with copyright rules.  

5. Critical thinking skills → As members of this digital community, students analyse and uncover data critically. They also enhance their problem-solving skills by planning and engaging in projects.  

6. Autonomy in using ICT → By teaching this lesson, teachers facilitate students’ appropriation of knowledge related to ICTs and how to integrate them to their work in the language classroom. Learners thus use their previous knowledge while incorporating new ideas. They learn about different tools they can use to share information as well as different formats in which this information can be presented. This way, they will have an array of tools they can resort to in future projects.

Pedagogical Guidelines

The guidelines listed below are the ones teachers should follow as stated in PLANIED, and that were also be considered when planning this lesson , keeping the idea of a classroom that fosters diversity in mind. It will also be up to the teacher using this lesson plan to ensure they follow these guidelines in the practice.

1. Incorporating a digital culture by achieving pedagogical innovation

2. New roles in education 

3. Continuous and social knowledge 

4. New ways of understanding and constructing reality 

5. New media languages 

6. Learning and playing in digital spaces 

7. Fostering critical thinking, responsibility and solidarity. 

8. Promoting equity 

9. Living in the present while looking forward 

10. Collaborative learning